Absalom came against the kingdom. I mean, it was just a terrible thing. And so God lets man know, I can forgive you, but you better understand sin is not a toy. You cannot take fire to your heart and not be burned.
Can a man take fire to his bosom and not be burned? It's a serious business. This should take away any notion of lawless behavior in Jesus' name as somehow doable. It is not.
It's not worth it. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Romans.
Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Now here's Pastor Rick with his continuing message called Anticipating Objection in Romans chapter 3. Jesus said, by the mouth of his holy prophets, he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets who have been since the world began. Actually, that's not Jesus speaking, but it's in the Gospel of Luke, so I should get some credit nonetheless.
Anyway, that is a fact. He spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets who have been since the world began. Abel was considered a prophet. Enoch was a prophet.
Noah, a prophet, is not only one who may be able to tell the future according to God's revelation, a prophet is one who speaks God's word, who walks with the Lord. And Enoch walked with God, and he was no more, for God took him. So this should have given the Jews an assurance that God is with them, will be with them to the end, and it should have the same effect today, but it does not amongst many of them. Look at the ones that do come to Christ, however, they get it, or hopefully. And what is expected of them, of the Jewish people?
Well, that they would embrace and understand the scripture, the oracles that have been entrusted to them. Jesus, again, I've quoted this one several times my last few times on Sunday teachings through Romans. Jesus speaking to the woman at the well, you worship what you do not know. We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.
And as I've hopefully been consistent in making the comment, when he made that statement, he wiped out every other religion of man on earth. Salvation is of the Jews, it comes through our Old Testament into our New Testament. Jesus was a Jew, he came as a Jew, and the Christian faith was born out of the Jewish religion. And I don't know how you can be a Christian and be against the Jewish people. If you say you're a Christian, you got problems with the Jewish people, you need to come talk to me after service so I can set you straight.
With love, I mean that. I've come across people who have claimed to be Christians and against Israel. I don't know how you can do that with a straight face, except Satan's messing with your head. Well, after Pentecost, God began to speak not through the Jew, but he began to speak through the Gentiles also. It was a slower process, but it happened. Imagine if the Messiah bypassed Israel in all her prophecies and went to the Eskimo people. It would have all been lost. It would have made no sense.
It would have just evaporated. But he did not do that. He went to the people who were prepared to receive him from centuries before, the Jewish people. It all made sense, it all connects to this very day.
It is systematic revelation. And just think about, you read Numbers, and when God was sending the spies into the Promised Land, their mission was to spy out the land, not to come back and give their opinion. And for that opinion that they did give, God judged them and they died.
I may get to that. But coming back to it, when God told Moses by name who to send into the Promised Land, he mentioned the men and their fathers. You see, the Jews were paying attention to their genealogy. Whether they knew it or not, the time would come when another Jew named Matthew would take this genealogy that they were careful to maintain, and he would demonstrate that Jesus Christ has all the rights to the throne of David as the Messiah, as the Scriptures have taught. And that's Matthew chapter 1, the first 17 verses that you might want to skip over when you're reading, but if you don't and you look into it, you'll find it has a treasure of fulfilled prophecy within it.
These things are not by chance. Your Bible is absolutely trustworthy. I don't care what Satan says to you. You can trust God's Word, but it doesn't mean it's going to insulate you from suffering and unfairness and your own flesh in this life.
But in the next life, you won't have to put up with any of this junk. Anyway, for 2,000 years, for 2,000 years, if you wanted to know about God, the true God, the Messiah to come, you had to ask a Jew. But that, of course, Pentecost moved away from that.
Now, actually, I said for 2,000, maybe I need another vacation. In the last 2,000 years, if you want to know about the Jewish Messiah, you usually have to ask a Gentile. Things have reversed. Prior to that, if you wanted to know about the God of creation, you had to ask a Jew. And so, you know, we see the work of the Lord taking place and it has all been mapped out for us in God's Word. So, for me as a Christian, I can be educated in the Scripture and remain a fool, or I can be educated in the Scripture and become a tool. That is what was available to the Jew that was raised in a society where the Scripture was everywhere, where teachings on the Scripture were everywhere, but it was lost on some, but not all.
You take King Saul. He was educated in the Scripture, but he remained a fool. He even said, I have played the fool.
It was an understatement. Or you can be like David who was also educated, but what a tool of God. We were just singing, again, a song that was penned by David after a catastrophe that he brought upon himself, the grace and the mercy of God.
Well, we still have a lot more to discuss here. He mentions oracles of God. That Greek word for oracles is from another Greek word that we all know, logos. It is the Word of God and that's what Paul is saying because entrusted to them were God's words, and nobody else got it like them. Within those words, we find the only way to God, to salvation, and to purpose. I don't know if I got enough time to reference Romans 9, verses 4 and 5. Speaking of the Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who was over all the eternally blessed God. Amen. Tell the Jehovah Witnesses to stick that in their pipe and smoke it because there it says Christ is God.
There's no way to undo that unless you lie. But there's more to that verse he's bringing out as he's preaching to the Jewish people what he is saying to them. Don't go twisting my words to the Galatians against me thinking that I'm somehow against Abraham and the patriarchs and the law of God. I have just understood who the Messiah is and that he is more important than them all. And again, hopefully I'll come to where they twist his words using what had been in circulation a long time by now as he writes this Roman letter from Corinth.
Let's not forget what's going on here. Satan's war is against whoever God has chosen to do his work, to be his educated tool. God is against you if you want, pardon me, God is against Satan, but Satan is against those who want to be used by God. Had God chosen, for example, the Polynesian people instead of the Jewish people, then the Hamas types would have attacked them. Satan will find someone to attack God's people, but God's people ought to be ready.
We ought to be prepared for these things. And we learn this from not only the Christ and the prophets before him, but also from the apostles and many in church history. So now verse 3, he says, for what if some did not believe?
So again, the hypophora, he asks a question, he will answer it. Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? Well, they were given the scriptures, but just because they did not believe the revelations doesn't make God somehow less God. Man's defects do not reveal any defects in God. What if some did not believe?
Well, it's on them, that's what he's going with this. Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? This shoots down that dominion theology that somehow God is done with the Jewish people as a race, he's never going to use them again, he's done with them.
Well, that's not true. That's not what the Bible teaches at all. God is faithful, and they cannot, as a people, break the covenant. As individuals, that's a different story, and this is what he's pointing out. Israel failed to realize that built within their own sacred writings was a messianic expansion plan. Well, you say, yeah, they should have saw that. Well, let me ask us all a question.
Maybe there are people or those of a culture or a class that you really detest, you hold them maybe in contempt. Would you bring them the gospel if you were given the chance, or would you withhold it? I'd like to think all believers, I'd preach to anybody who'd want to hear the gospel of Christ. Well, what was happening with many of the Jews? They didn't want to give anything to the Gentiles. They wanted the Gentiles to go to hell, and Paul is bringing this to the surface. If you're thinking this way and you're reading these things, you're realizing that he is not allowing any spiritual arrogance to go without condemnation. It became, to the generations of many of the Jews, the Gentiles became an unharvested crop.
So, here we are in the workplace, in the neighborhood, wherever we find ourselves. We want to make sure we are not guilty of leaving a crop unharvested. And one way to do that is, of course, is to be quiet about your salvation and who you are as a Christian. Another one is to ruin your witness in the face of unbelievers.
So, we are hopefully on guard against these things. He continues as he moves forward, God is not reduced by unfaithful people, and that applies to those who would like to blame the church or Christians for not receiving Christ. Well, you know, how can I become a Christian looking at how you Christians fuss and fight with each other? Well, you non-Christians fuss and fight with each other, too. It's just evidence of sin in the world. It's nothing against God.
It's totally against Satan and against your fallen nature and my fallen nature. But don't think for one minute that you're going to be able to stand in front of God and say, I would have become a Christian, but I saw some Christians that were messed up, so I ruled you out. Well, those Christians that are messed up, God will deal with them. He's going to deal with you, too, for your sin.
And if you don't have a Savior, it's not going to go well for you. And so, we come across those people who are eager to excuse themselves from receiving the truth and the prophecies of Scripture by pointing to other Christians who, in their opinion, have failed to be the Christians that they expected them to be. Well, that's dealt with in other places in Scripture, too, but God's going to say to them, I never called you to worship the Christians. I called you to worship me. Verse 4, so answering the question in verse 3, for what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? Verse 4, certainly not. Indeed, let God be true in every man a liar, as it is written, that you may be justified in your words and may overcome when you are judged.
So, where to begin? This is emphatic. This is forceful. Certainly not. Don't be silly is how we might want to say it. God's covenant with Israel remains, even if they haven't been faithful. But, again, God never lies. He cannot lie. Hebrews 6 18, it is impossible for God to lie. So, let God be true and everyone else a liar. Impenitent people will answer for their sin, but God will march forward whatever men are doing.
We have that in a song. His truth is marching on. God is moving forward regardless of what people are doing. But, fortunately, there are many people that are responding to what God is doing. Well, Jesus said, I came for the sick. The physician came to deal with the sick, which is all of us, but some don't want to admit that they are sick.
And so, they cannot be helped by the physician. They will not benefit from the gospel. And so, part of our evangelism involves pointing out to an individual, you are not all that. There are things about you that from a holy God's perspective are detestable, contemptible. Why should He let you in heaven? And I don't know how anybody can honestly say, well, you know, actually God should let me in heaven because I am all that. That would be laughable and that would be easy to pick apart because you could say to that person, well, by your answer that you just gave me, if I don't like you and I don't by your answer, don't expect God to like you.
Did I make that clear? There are things that we do as people that God does not like. And He addresses all of it in His Word. But the unbeliever tends not to read the Word of God, but they can read us. We can become that letter written to them, that agent of God through our time and understanding of the Word.
So if you get nothing else out of this morning's consideration, may you get this part. Paul is dealing with those who object to the gospel and have all of these clever arguments and he's holding them accountable and saying, with all of your arguments you cannot get away from accountability to a holy God. And he'll go on and as he goes through this chapter, we won't get it this morning, he'll go on to point out your sinners. And the only way to deal with that sin is through a Savior and that is according to God's plan and definition of a Savior, Christ. And so here he says, as it is written, he goes to the scripture.
Certainly not. Let me quote the Bible to you. And he happens to go to a man who wrote this psalm on the heels of a terrible sin that he committed. But David knew God forgave him.
We can struggle with that. How could God forgive David for what he did? The murder and the adultery, how could God forgive? And so David received a forgiveness, a man after God's own heart. This is in Psalm 51. And what David is saying when David says, Paul says as it is written and David says that you may be justified in your words and may overcome when you are judged. And so David is saying God, his wrath is justified.
He always gets it right. His words are just and his judgment overcomes those who accuse him of anything. God is innocent all the time. And so David, his psalm shows a surrender and a commitment to stand condemned before God went guilty, demonstrating in that psalm that yeah, I sinned and God is right.
Whatever judgment he puts on me, he is right. But his mercy overcame the judgment. Where sin abounded, grace did much more as Paul will write in chapter 3. Man's unrighteousness, it might highlight the goodness of God.
And this is what their argument was. But it carries a heavy price sometimes as it did for David. His sin, David's sin highlighted the mercy and grace of God. David was forgiven but the consequences of his actions were bloody.
Absalom came against the kingdom. I mean it was just a terrible thing. And so God lets man know, I can forgive you but you better understand sin is not a toy. You cannot take fire to your heart and not be burned. Can a man take fire to his bosom and not be burned?
It's a serious business. This should take away any notion of lawless behavior in Jesus' name is somehow doable. It is not.
It's not worth it. And so when men look at the cross of Christ, they should hear the judgment of Christ that they're dead in their sin if they don't receive him. Or they will hear I have taken away your sin if they have received him.
The choice again falls to the individual. This is where Paul is going. This is a condensed overview of where he is going. He's doing this throughout the all of the Roman letter. He's dealing with salvation. He's dealing with sin. He's dealing with faithfulness throughout this letter. He is addressing the anticipated objections that will come from men who are otherwise intelligent.
Cannot emphasize that enough. They are otherwise intelligent. But when it comes to God, because of their dishonesty with God, they are spiritual fools.
And that is again what he's bringing up. Verse five. But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say then?
Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? I speak as a man. Well, let's take the bottom of that verse first. I speak as a man. He's indicating that he is making a point and not declaring a doctrine.
He's saying, hear me out. I'm speaking in the role of someone who is being dishonest and faithless. They would come up with some scenario like this.
Let's read the scenario again. Verse five. But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say then? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? In other words, if I sin and God shows me mercy and that makes God look great, why is he angry with me for sinning?
I just helped him look good. You would say, who would say such a dumb thing? Those guys up in Athens. They do it to this day. To this day, we have people that come up with all sorts of hypothetical situations that will never happen. And they present them as though you're faced with this. You better come up with an answer. And it's silly.
And I want to zero in on that. If my sin shows God's grace, then sin is not bad. That's the illogic. A sinister attempt to get rid of logic, actually, is punishment fair if God is glorified because of it?
Yes. That's where Paul is going. Some try to corner us with silly, complex, hypothetical situations as I mentioned that will never happen. These are usually pseudo-intelligent, sophisticated arguments that entangle and engross anybody who messes with them.
You say, where does this happen? What do you think this whole woke thing is? Can you tell me what a woman is? You answer me. No, not out loud. Is that person up to no good? Does that even merit an answer? If a people smasher just came out of the sky and squashed that person when they asked that question, I bet nobody else would ask that question ever again. Yeah, that was pretty dumb. Let's move on.
But that's not what happened. The geniuses in the universities and again, not all people in universities are up to no good or sinister, but there is a large party of them that are in control, that they have influence, and they are up to no good. And they help these things along. They do all the hauling for Satan they can do because they refuse Christ in an existential way. And they think that it's a compliment to be an existentialist, trying to get to the bottom of the existence of man with all of these philosophical ideas that have no bearing on life, do nothing for anyone else, without no one anywhere. You won't find the existentialist working in a soup kitchen or scrubbing floors. They're too busy out coming up with questions and reasons to not believe God.
And you say, well, who's doing that today? Well, you're familiar with AI, artificial intelligence, which we do not have here. All the intelligence here is real.
Artificial intelligence is man taking all the information he can get from anywhere he can get it and putting it into one spot and then having you be able to activate that accumulation of knowledge. Many of you are reading articles online that are artificially generated. They're not written by someone.
They have a name. They may even put a face there, but many of those articles are fake. It's artificial intelligence. Why are they doing this?
Well, according to one, who I actually admire, who is quite a remarkable person, but is in the world of this artificial intelligence, he's saying we want to find our origins and we want artificial intelligence to give us this answer. Just go to the first page. It's on the first page, but this is not complicated enough for them. Thanks for joining us for today's teaching on Cross Reference Radio. This is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia.
We're currently going through the book of Romans. If you're in need of hearing this message again or want to listen to others like it, head over to crossreferenceradio.com. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast too, so you'll never miss another edition. Just go to your favorite podcast app to subscribe. On our website, you'll be able to learn a little more about the ministry of Cross Reference Radio, so make a note of it, crossreferenceradio.com. That's all we have time for today, but thanks so much for listening. Pastor Rick will be back next time in the book of Romans here on Cross Reference Radio.
